August 23, 2011

This is the last part of our trip.  We left Palm Springs around 8:15 a.m. on Tuesday and headed up to Pioneertown.

It was an interesting place but I won't go into great detail about it.  If you'd like to know more, call Jay.  His dad nearly invested in land here back in the late '40s.  Sanity prevailed.  However, Jay has fond memories of the area during the time they lived in the LA area.

Here are some of the "sets" which remain.

And . . .

The land around here is rocky, sandy and not well-populated, but coming here brought great joy to Jay's heart.

We got back to Palm Springs around 10:15 a.m. where it was 106 already.  I just LOVE the wind farms around here but we were itching to head east so I just shot these as drive-bys:

Eastward Ho!

We don't normally take the "southern route" and for good reason.  The LA area is a traffic nightmare and we ran through some grim towns - such as Fontana.  Wow - nothing but trucks.  It's either where they're born or where they go to die.

The views to and beyond Phoenix [where it was 114] were mostly desert but with mountains.  We crossed the Continental Divide at one point, with the altitude of just under 5,000 feet.

We made it all the way to Lordsburg, NM where we stopped for the night.  Since I was bound and determined to sleep in my own bed on Wednesday night, we rose early, grabbed a quick breakfast and sped east.  The areas around and beyond El Paso were fairly green for a desert.  But no lollygagging, we were determined to get home.

On the west side of Fort Worth at around 7:00 p.m., it was 106 and as we were driving through Fort Worth, the winds were gusting and the skies darkened.  Alas, no rain, but by the time we got to the east side of Fort Worth/Arlington, it was 91.  A friend or two asked if we could bring some cooler weather with us, and always aiming to please . . .

The Dallas skyline never looked better!  It's a darn nice skyline on most days, but boy, did it ever look great!

So, there you have it.  I'm in the process of doing all the normal things one does after a trip - trying to get my bearings, and laundry!  It was fun but I think we're going to look at other destinations - such as Mount Rushmore and points in between here and there.  Maybe next June.

So for now, it's good old home!  I'll be in the northeast for four weeks beginning on October 5, so be sure to check back.

Best!

August 22, 2011

Whew!  I'm beat and I'm sure Jay must be as well.  We left The Tickle Pink at about 8:15 this morning and drove down The Five.  Sorry, but why do people live in the LA area????  Going down through the San Juaquin Valley was fine but once we got into Los Angeles County it was insane.  We got to Palm Springs in one piece.

In any case we got to Palm Springs at around 4:30 and checked into the Las Brisas Best Western.  It was about 109 but truly a very dry heat.  HOT none the less.  We walked over to LG Steak House where we had a wonderful meal.  Since we hadn't had anything to eat since The Tickle Pink, we were both pretty hungry and in need of an adult beverage.  Chip, our absolutely fabulous waiter was just that - absolutely fabulous:

Chip's from the LA area and is truly into what he's doing for a living.  With his personality and love of life, he's got to be making a terrific living here in Old Persons Land!

Being Old Persons, we loved our meals and had a really good time with Chip and the other wait staff.

Tomorrow, we're doing the Pioneertown Thing so that might be interesting.

Bon Nuit to all.

xo

August 21, 2011

What a gloriously wonderful day!  Concous d'Elegance at Pebble Beach, the foremost car show in the entire world.  And it is, indeed, amazing.  We got there at around 10 o'clock and planted our chairs close to the winners ramp.  It was pretty cloudy all day but there were glimpses of blue sky in the distance.

We took off and walked the cars.  There were some fabulous cars as usual but I tend to let Jay take photos of the cars while I take photos of other interesting things such as people in their outlandish outfits.  These boats were moored off Pebble Beach and usually belong to high-dollar attendees.

I, of course, am always on the lookout for the odd outfit or two, but most times I can't take a photo as it would be too obvious.  I was able to catch this purple panted, plaid jacketed fellow but when I looked at the shot I was able to snag, it looked as if he's relieving himself on the car, which he definitely was not.

Here's an Italia made by Hudson very much unlike Jay's Intermeccanica Italia.  However, that's Wayne Carini's head popping out of the trunk on the left.

And here's Sir Sterling Moss who was given a special trophy later on in the day.  What a genuinely nice man.

I caught this woman and just thought her sunglasses were, well - you decide!

After a couple hours of walking the cars, it was time to return to our chairs.  We were lucky enough to sit next to Rick Lynch and his wife, Deb, from Phoenix.

Jay was having a very good time, finally relaxing.

Rick's sister, Pat, is from Philadelphia and was truly quite the entertainer! What a lovely person.

Rick and Pat were desperately looking for their cousin, Dr. Bob, from Palo Alto.  He finally showed up just as we were leaving.

We never stay until Best of Show is announced and this year was no different.  We shuttled and bused back to our car and were happy to be there.  The folks at Pebble Beach who put on this event are amazing in their efficiency.  There were, however, a glitch or two this year, but not horrible.

Jay and I hadn't had lunch so we stopped at Rio Grill on the way back to The Tickle Pink.  Adult beverages were definitely in order.  I just wish I'd brought in my little camera as my Crispy Pork Shank was not just exquisitely delicious, but was beautiful.  It was surrounded by an amazing sauce verde and yam puree.  So beautiful and yummy.

We got back to The Tickle Pink just as Wine Hour was winding down, but the usual suspects were there.
Bob and Jan from Austin:

Dee and Neil from Southern California:

Beth and Bob from San Diego:

And two newcomers from Atlanta, Kathy and her husband.

Kathy was sweet enough to take this photo of the two Texas gals and the two SoCal gals:

Another wonderful time at The Tickle Pink! Another wonderful time on the Monterey Peninsula.

We're leaving early tomorrow [Monday] and are truly going to be happy to get home in our own beds with our own stuff, but the trip is going to be different as we're going south this year.  We've not done that in over 20 years and we're going to stop in Pioneertown so Jay can relive some memories from his childhood.  I hope we have decent internet access along the way, but if not . . .

So, until another day.  Adieu.

August 20, 2011

Another day with no sun; however, I think the temperatures got close to 60 degrees today.  Just heavenly!

Saturday in Carmel is a zoo as tour buses descend on downtown to shop, eat and tour the galleries.  We decided to do the same, except we didn't eat or tour any galleries - one of us shopped!  ;0)

We then went over to Pebble Beach to see what was going on over there.  There was a Retro Show which is always interesting.  I usually find a bench outside and watch.  People watching here is the BEST.  The outfits some of these Old Farts wear should be in a magazine.  I tried to get a sneaky shot of one particular OF in pink patchwork pants but someone got in the way.  We were lucky enough to talk to some really nice folks and spent a couple of hours over there.

I caught these shots of the car carriers:

Understand, there are about 15 rows of these rigs and each one holds 6 to 8 cars.  Some of the owners, such as John Mozart, own their own rigs:

You can make out half of a Ferrari 250 GTO that's being unloaded.  It sold for $33 or $34 MILLION dollars.  We were told that there were 12 of them over at Laguna Seca on the track today, all worth about the same.

$34,000,000 and not one bathroom!  Who has this kind of money anyway?

We then drove over to Monterey to tour the cars that are going off at the various auctions, like Mecum, RM Auctions and Gooding & Company.  This little number . . .

a 1912 Henderson, was at auction the other night and had a bid of $195,000 in the room.  The owner refused to let it go as he "allegedly" has an offer of $250,000, and wanted to see if he could get more than that.

After hanging around the Portola Hotel for a few hours, we headed out the wharf to Domenico's for a late lunch / early dinner.

Cheers!  Dinner / or lunch or whatever, was good but not spectacular as it has been in the past.  Oh, well, they're not all winners.

We walked the wharf for a while and spied this pelican.

He's waiting patiently for some fishing boats to come in as they usually throw the heads and tails when they clean the fish - and probably other parts as well.

This little guy was having a grand old time with his strawberry ice cream cone.  What a doll face!

So, seeing strawberry ice cream . . .

we HAD to have some.  Well, Jay had pralines and cream but that pink thing is mine!  First one since March and it was quite tasty.

So back to The Tickle Pink we went and met Bob and Jan, and Beth and Bob for a quick glass of wine before they left to have dinner.

I'm pretty much packed as tomorrow it's the Concous d'Elegance at Pebble Beach and then an early departure on Monday morning.  We're both more than ready to go home and even thought the temperatures are way too hot in Dallas, it's HOME and that's where the heart is.  We'll be going to Palm Springs the first day and then on to Pioneertown for Jay to relive his youth for a little while.

More on that as we travel.

'Night all.